I doubt it's something as huge as life on Mars. Maybe more along the lines of it has the potential to sustain life, in the future.
I don't know. At any rate, I am ridiculously excited to find out what this could be. I mean... if it IS life, then everything changes. Everything.

give one example of what would change.
oh hey i heard they found two bacilli on mars...life won't ever be the same.

give one example of what would change.
oh hey i heard they found two bacilli on mars...life won't ever be the same.

It would give us insight on how life is formed, maybe on how life first appeared. It may even give insight into how to create life artificially.
It would give us insight into ways of evolution in such drastically different worlds as Earth and Mars.
It may possibly give us insight into different forms of life than the ones we know. Hell, life in Martian conditions probably is another form of life.
It would give us proof, that life is not an Earth-unique phenomena.
It would give us proof that we are not alone in the universe, even if our only neighbors are bacteria on a nearby planet.

But for an ignorant guy living in a basement it wouldn't mean anything, of course.

To life, to life I'll bring them,
I'll bring all these dead men to life!

*crosses fingers* please be The Martian Manhunter please be The Martian Manhunter please be The Martian Manhunter.

It's probably not him....

Oh well, hope they have found proof that life existed on Mars, that would be amazing to discover I also hope if they find out they didn't find anything, they let us know what they thought they had found.

give one example of what would change.
oh hey i heard they found two bacilli on mars...life won't ever be the same.

Funding could be re-routed back to NASA; efforts redoubled in the search for other planets to inhabit, or even other alien races to encounter. The public eye would be turned back to the stars, not to mention A LOT of religions would probably flip some tables over the discovery.

We could even see privatised ventures into space. On an individual level, sure, maybe you won't see big changes... but in the big picture? It'd be pretty ground-breaking.

It would give us insight on how life is formed, maybe on how life first appeared. It may even give insight into how to create life artificially.
It would give us insight into ways of evolution in such drastically different worlds as Earth and Mars.
It may possibly give us insight into different forms of life than the ones we know. Hell, life in Martian conditions probably is another form of life.
It would give us proof, that life is not an Earth-unique phenomena.
It would give us proof that we are not alone in the universe, even if our only neighbors are bacteria on a nearby planet.

But for an ignorant guy living in a basement it wouldn't mean anything, of course.

1: how could it in any way give you insight into this
if you have one stone and then find another stone it doesn't tell you how stone 1 came into existence.
2/3: we have conditions like this on earth aswell, we have life forms who don't need oxygen to exist. no need for mars bacteria.
4/5: the possibilty of being alone in the universe is evanescent...

Here's a number of possibilities I considered:
- Gems, powder or other earthly "precious"
- Water, oil or traces of other liquids
- Any kind of product that could be used as fuel
- Fossils or any kind (hence the "history" reference)

Yep - evidence of life outside our own biosphere no matter how tiny, is evidence that we are not unique. If life can develop on two adjacent planets, then it is not only not unique - but possibly common.

Funding could be re-routed back to NASA; efforts redoubled in the search for other planets to inhabit, or even other alien races to encounter. The public eye would be turned back to the stars, not to mention A LOT of religions would probably flip some tables over the discovery.

We could even see privatised ventures into space. On an individual level, sure, maybe you won't see big changes... but in the big picture? It'd be pretty ground-breaking.

i think humanity has bigger problems than alien lifeforms and space travels...and i couldn't care less about the religious guys anyways...
whatever...may just be personal opinion.